Recent concentrations of fine particulate and ground level ozone air pollution follow a familiar trend. Both are improving, the most recent federal single-year data suggest. But only ozone meets health-based air quality standards when longer-term levels are considered. The 8-hour annual average for ozone in southwestern Pennsylvania fell to .073 parts per million in 2016,... More
-
Air Quality Update
-
Petrochemical Corridor Moves Forward
Researchers have identified underground structures in southwestern Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia suitable for a natural gas storage hub, a key part of an initiative to develop a petrochemical-manufacturing corridor in the region. Meanwhile, Shell has agreed to expand air quality monitoring at the ethane cracker complex being built in Beaver County. More
-
Ecosystem Health
Sustainability Watch The City of Pittsburgh and region have made important strides toward a future built around a sustainable economy, environmental stewardship and social equity and justice. But lingering shortcomings ranging from air pollution to racial and income equity underscore the work that lies ahead. This is one of a series of briefs that... More
-
Does Air Quality Matter to Young Workers?
Pittsburgh’s “smoky city” days are past, but the region’s air remains among the most polluted of the country’s metropolitan areas, according to The American Lung Association’s rankings. Last year, the association put it at No. 8 in its list of cities with the most annual particle pollution. More
-
Living Dangerously
Despite the improvement in the region’s air quality in recent years, southwestern Pennsylvania still fails to meet federal health-based standards for various major air pollutants, such as ground-level ozone, sulfur dioxide and fine particulates, known as PM2.5. And that regional pollution elevates risks of cancer, respiratory ailments and other serious health problems. More
-
The Last Coke Works
U.S. Steel’s Clairton plant still casts a long shadow over local air quality At the Clairton Public Library in the industrial Monongahela River valley, patrons can check out “Moby Dick,” “To Kill a Mockingbird,” the adventures of Curious George and any number of Nancy Drew mysteries. They can read issues of Vogue and Popular Science.... More
-
The Region’s Top 10 Air Polluters
Although the region’s air has improved dramatically from the height of Pittsburgh’s industrial past, southwestern Pennsylvania remains home to factories and power plants that release millions of pounds of toxic chemicals into the air. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency uses Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) data to track toxic chemicals released into the air, water and... More
-
Inconspicuous and Dangerous
Ozone and PM2.5 are the region’s biggest air hazards The heavy smoke is gone. But particulates 30 times smaller than the diameter of a human hair and gases formed by the reaction of sunlight and fossil fuels exhaust remain as the region’s most widespread, stubborn and dangerous air quality problems. Unlike the smoke that draped... More
-
Up in the Air
Southwestern Pennsylvania and air quality have long had a complicated relationship. For the better part of a century, the region had been a place so polluted from the soot of industry and homes heated by coal that street lamps were lit in the afternoon and walking a single block could ruin the collar of a... More